Road Trip 2012

We started out on Tuesday, July 10th and drove as far as Hamburg for an overnight at my brother-in-law’s.  Then two days of driving to Nags Head, North Carolina where we stayed for 4 days at a fabulous family reunion.  The girls had a blast playing on the beach, playing with cousins they see every two years, and going to the local aquarium.  The First Colony Inn was a charming place to stay with gathering spaces for the 45 or so family members at the reunion.

We survived the trip down with DVDs, video games, toys and colouring books.  Musts for road trips in my opinion.  I know there are old school people out there who say we always just played I Spy and other car games but….they have selective memory because they leave out the:

“Are we there yet?”

Five seconds later,

“Are we there yet?”

Ten seconds later, “Mom, Fiona took my __________” without asking.”  

One second later, “If I have to pull over to stop the fighting I’m going to &%$^#$!”

Remember that?

Anyhoo, our plan was to come back the same way but our hosts suggested we take a more scenic route through Virginia.  We added three days to our trip and visited Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s home, which was surprisingly fascinating, he was an interesting dude!  I’m Canadian so I didn’t really know much about him, he was quite the Renaissance man.

The best part of our return trip was Skyline Drive through Shenandoah National Park in the Appalacian Mountains.  Wow.   

Our girls did great but Mommy had a few mini meltdowns about 8pm when we were still looking for accommodation.  Since we hadn’t planned this part we were winging it and often had late starts and late nights.   I think I’ve outgrown back packing travel, never booking in advance and letting fate take me places. It was all good but next time I would bring my camping stuff to save money and to make finding accommodation easier.  I wouldn’t give up our night at Big Meadows Lodge for anything though.  I highly recommend it.  

More to come later….including us singing Country Roads as I video tape our travels on Skyline Drive!